Let's Make Scenes of Park Vandalism History- Join the Protest at 1.40pm Tomorrow (Mon) to Demand Park Wardens for Galway city's public parks

Bench in Terryland Forest Park that has lain broken & un-repaired for 2 years

Help keep our public parks including Terryland Forest Park and Merlin Woods clean and safe by maintaining the pressure on Galway City Council to follow the example of many other Irish and European cities in establishing a full-time Park Warden unit.

We were promised at last month's protest outside the council January meeting that the deferred motion from Councillor Mark Lohan, to set up a permanent on-the-ground parks staff crew, would be voted on at the next council meeting on Monday February 4th.
We thank Niall McNelis Mayor of Galway City for this commitment- he is someone that has long being an activist promoting a Clean Galway through his involvement in mass litter pickups and the Tidy Towns competition.
Getting the motion passed is a first step in reclaiming the public green spaces for the people of Galway, and in protecting these very important rare urban habitats for our precious but increasingly threatened native mammals, birds, insects, trees, flowers and other living things.
We want our public woods, wetlands, parks, meadows and waterways to be 'Carbon Sinks' to tackle Climate Change, Outdoor Classrooms for our schools, Outdoor Labs for our second and third level students, Outdoor Gyms for physical exercise enthusiasts, Nature Playgrounds for our children, Nature Trails for walkers, Zones of Tranquility and passive Leisure for people of all ages, Rural landscapes for revitalising nature-friendly farming, and Sanctuaries for our endangered native flora and fauna.

Many of our elected public representatives have already declared their support for a Park Wardens unit for Galway city including Mayor Niall McNelis, Billy Cameron, Cathal Ó Conchúir, Mike Cubbard, Cllr Frank Fahy, Mairéad Farrell and Michael Crowe. So in advance of tomorrow's we have declarations of solidarity from councillors of all political parties and from the independent councillor Mike Cubbard. That is great news! In advance of the meeting, we have lobbied all the other councilors on the issue.

But it is important that the people of Galway city show their determination that such a policy is implemented by turning up outside City Hall at 1.40pm on that day. Of course increased investment in infrastructure is also needed. But the establishment of a park wardens unit is an important first step.
So we ask you to join us and to bring along your friends, neighbours and family members. Together We Can (as we done so many times before) Make a Difference!

p.s. the  Shame!

Making Homes for Bats

Photograph shows participants from Men's Sheds of Oughterard and Galway city at the recent bat making workshop mentored by Peter Finnegan at the Cumann na bhFear premises.

Twenty of these bat boxes will be installed by volunteers on Saturday (May 27th) in the Terryland Forest Park under the auspices of Caitriona Carlin and Kate Mc Aney.
Meet up will be at 11am in the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden.

Save Galway City's Green Spaces from the Bulldozer

A leading community activist has condemned as ‘environmental and health vandalism’ the proposals by Galway city council to advocate the construction of buildings and a road through the main urban parks as a betrayal of the hundreds of dedicated residents, scientists, teachers and youth who regularly give their time, energies and ideas to developing and maintaining the local authority’s woods, parks and green spaces for the benefit of the general public.  

According to Brendan Smith of the Terryland Forest Alliance, “There is a deep sense of shock and a feeling of betrayal amongst Galway’s army of environmental volunteers as we witness council officials undertaking a complete U-turn on long standing environmental policies, which will have serious negative consequences on people’s health, on air quality, on the education of our children, on the county’s commitment to combat global climate change and which will led to the destruction of sensitive wildlife corridors that have taken decades to nurture. We are calling on citizens and their elected representatives to save our city from what can only be described as institutional environmental and health vandalism and are hosting a public meeting on this issue at 7.30pm on Thursday November 24^th in the Maldron Hotel near the Kirwan Roundabout on the Headford Road.”

Community made wildflower meadow in Terryland Forest Park, Summer 2916

In the last few weeks, we have been informed by City Hall that the Terryland Forest Park multi-sectoral steering committee that includes NUI Galway, GMIT, An Taisce, HSE, schools and communities can no longer met due to budgetary restrictions; that a road will be built through the same forest park; that an ancient meadow in Merlin Woods will be bulldozed to make way for a hospice in spite of suitable alterative sites existing nearby; that the council propose to make it illegal for children to climb trees and that the number of workers in park maintenance are being reduced. 

2008: 10,000+ people sign petition which successfully stopped a road being built through Terryland Forest Park

It is only a few years ago that a petition signed by over 10,000 Galwegians stopped a road being built through Terryland Forest Park, a park referred too as the “People’s Park” as most of its 100,000 trees were planted by the people of the city from March 2000 onwards. The council are ignoring the reasons why people did so. For the latest scientific research shows the fundamental importance of trees and nature to people’s well being, which is why the next generation of cities across the world are integrating parks, food gardens and forests into their urban infrastructures. Ireland has the highest rate of obesity and weight excess in Europe whilst over 20% of our young people suffer from some form of mental health disorder, much of which can stem from what is known as Nature Deficit Disorder(NDD).  Experiencing the clean air as well as the calming and stimulation effect of the ‘Great Outdoors’ is now being promoted by the medical profession worldwide as an alternative to the costly drugs and pill culture.

Hence for the sake of our citizens, our future generations and our planet the council’s retrograde steps to design out biodiversity must be halted.

These brutal actions make a mockery of the city being declared a green capital of Europe as the EU Green Leaf City 2017. Projects involving community volunteers played a key role in securing this international accolade. Activists were therefore hoping that the city’s new found international eco-status would led to significant investment and progress being made in promoting greater public access to parks; in overcoming anti-social activity such as illegal dumping and bush drinking in bogs, parks and woodlands; in finally moving forward on the Galway city-Clifden Greenway and in supporting park-based nature learning initiatives for children.  

The Outdoor Classroom

Over the last year, scientists, technologists, teachers, health experts and environmentalists have begun working together to commence the process of transforming Terryland into a huge Outdoor Classroom and Outdoor Laboratory for our educational institutions that could also provide major tourist benefit. 

Traditional Mowing of widlflower meadow in Terryland Forest Park

Heritage enthusiasts have started to use it as a learning hub for traditional rural skills and crafts including the creation of native wildflower meadows where the grass is mowed by using hand held scythes, scarecrow-making events for children, and the introduction of horse drawn ploughing into the park’s organic garden.

Yet we are now faced with the extraordinary situation that the council has decided that Galway’s communities can no longer be involved in developing a park that they actually founded. This decision is the antithesis of civic engagement, a cornerstone of the city’s development strategy. 

Community Tree Planting

Hence there is a genuine fear that the Green Leaf award could become nothing more than mere window dressing, a title without substance, a Greenwash. The council authorities are it seems treating forests and parks as a reserve land bank to be chipped away when land is needed to be cemented and tarmaced over. Not for nothing is Terryland officially recognised as the ‘Lungs of the City’; its nearly 100,000 trees that were mostly planted by the people of Galway since 2000 provide the oxygen needs of up to 400,000 people, absorb over a decade 3,800 metric tons of the carbon dioxide gas that is contributing to global warming and provide  €4.64 billion worth of air pollution control over 50 years. This park, stretching from the wetlands of the Corrib along the Dyke Road to the farmlands of Castlegar, has the potential to be even important to Galway than the Phoenix Park is to Dublin. But it is been denied the public resources that it so urgently needs whilst funds and support from steering committee members are being ignored.

We as concerned citizens see ourselves as the defenders of the council’s own recreational, health, community and environmental policies. We are not going to let officialdom destroy our precious life-giving wildlife habitats and green spaces. 

The community and environmental sector should once again be viewed as equal partners whose actions over the years have brought many benefits to the quality of life in the city, including stopping the construction of a giant municipal incinerator and its replacement by the first three bin waste recycling system in Ireland as well as the introduction of the country’s first cash-for-cans scheme.”

Operation Blathánna - Reflowering the Forest - April 25th 2015

  Under the tutelage of flora enthusiast Padraig Keirns. Terryland Forest Park Conservation Volunteers & Conservation Volunteers Galway city during Spring and Autumn 2014 undertook a series of native wildflowers plantathons in the Terryland Forest Park, Ireland's largest community-initiated urban forest.
The aim of 'Operation Bláthanna' is to plant the wildflowers that will dramatically increase the biodiversity of this great natural resource.
Our first large scale flower planting for 2015 will take place on Saturday April 25th. 
Rendezvous: 10am in car park in front of Galway Bay FM.

The Terryland Forest Park area designated for the April event will be a woodland behind Riverside estate & Liosban business. will include Bluebells, Bugle, Cow Parsley, Crow Garlic, Ground Ivy, St. Patrick’s Cabbage, Pendulous Sedge, Sitchwort and Wood-rush.
There will also be a clearance of long grass and briers.

During June 2014, volunteers collected the seeds of Bluebells and Wild Garlic from mature forests in Galway and spread them across suitable areas of Terryland Forsest Park.
In September, hundreds of Primroses were planted in the forest.

Last year then represented the beginnings of a major biodiversity project to plant appropriate indigenous species in the meadows, woods and hedgerows of this unique urban natural heritage resource. The flowering of the forest with sanicle, foxglove, st. patrick's cabbage, cow parsley, raspberry, primrose, wild garlic, bluebells and many more indigenous varieties will dramatically increase its attractiveness to a wide variety of insects, birds and many other types of wildlife.

For further information, contact Brendan at speediecelt@gmail.com.

Help Clean Up a Forest & Create a Community Garden

Get involved this Saturday (February 15th) in a double Eco-Community event: cleaning up a section of Terryland Forest Park followed by the continuation of the task of establishing a Community Garden at the Eglinton Asylum Seekers Hostel in Salthill.

Last Saturday, great preparatory work was undertaken by a band of enthusiastic residents and external volunteers in transforming a wasteland into what hopefully will become a productive vegetable and fruits organic garden for those living in the Eglinton. This activity will continue this Saturday at 2.30pm. Max 2hr duration. Rendevous: Eglinton reception.

For committed tree lovers & eco-volunteers everywhere, there will also be a one hour clean up from 12.30-1.30pm in the Terryland Forest Park (aka "The People's Park"). Rendevous: Ballnfoile Mór Community Organic Garden located in the forest park, behind Lus Leana and Cluain Fada.
Light refreshments at both locations!

Terryland Forest Park: Conservation Volunteers Update

Clean-Up of Forest Park was a great Success!

Many thanks to all those volunteers and supporters of the  Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park (CVTFP) that turned up on Saturday October 28th for a well supported clean-up in the Terryland Forest Park on Saturday October. Lots of rubbish was collected in the allocated 2 hour period- 30 full bags (alcohol cans and bottles), a bicycle, a large piece of lino flooring, a buggy, a microwave, washing machine and a sofa.

Recent Anti-Social Activity

Sadly since our clean-up, more litter has appeared in the park due to the presence of a group of very drunk young people late on Halloween night who congregated near to the clean-up area and left behind a myriad of burnt tyres, tables, chairs and beverage containers.

However, CVTFP chairperson Brendan Smith met this week with the local Community Garda on the issue and discussions are taking place on possible ways of eliminating this anti-social problem once and for all from the Forest Park. So do not lose heart!

Conservation Volunteer HQ in Forest Park!

The Conservation Volunteers have taken delivery of a large container from City Parks manager Stephen Walsh. It has been positioned near to the Galway Bay FM premised at one of the entrances to the Terryland Forest Park. This unit has enormous potential uses including serving as our onsite headquarters and a depot for touring bicycles that can be loaned to park visitors.

Our friends in Cumann na bhFear are allocating a number of High Nelly vintage bikes to be used for this purpose. 

Brendan Smith has held preliminary discussions with the City Arts Office on how schools can be actively involved in the painting  of a thematic mural on the exterior walls of our new HQ.

Leafless Tree Detective Walk

Conservation Volunteer TFP member Matthew O’Toole is organising what promises to be an exciting investigative guided nature walk in the Terryland Forest Park at 2.30pm on Saturday November 17^th.

Matthew says. “As the last leaves of autumn fall, the trees take on a different form.
Come discover the trees of Terryland Forest Park with bark, shape and form. Become an arboreal detective!”

Rendezvous: O'Brien's Café, Lisbaun Estate, 2:30pm, Sat. November 17th
For further information, contact Matthew at vmatthewg@gmail.com

School Becomes a ‘Friend of the Terryland Forest Park’

St. Nicholas Parochial School is the first in a series of schools that it is hoped will be signing up over the next few months to take an active role in the development and preservation and promotion of the Terryland Forest Park  as an outdoor classroom and research laboratory of significant local and national importance.

The fifth and sixth class students will be working with Conservation Volunteer members Andreas Baumann, Matthew O’Toole and Brendan Smith to develop a free mobile app of the parkland that will benefit local and tourists alike!

The students will also mount an exhibit on the theme of the Forest Park at the Galway Science Fair that will take place on Sunday November  25^th in NUI Galway. This fair is major importance and attracted over 25,000 visitors last year.

Online Digital Maps of Forest now Available

Brendan Smith is one of three CVTFP members working on producing digital information maps containing important social and natural heritage information of the Terryland Forest Park. Andreas Baumann and Bernard McGlinchy are also involved in mapping the pioneering Seven Galway Castles Lopped Cycle Trail which will become a major Greenways of national importance.

It is the intention that these high tech resources will be used for educational and tourism purposes and be accessed online or as mobile apps.

A draft version of Brendan’s work can be viewed here

City Heritage Officer to work with Conservation Volunteers TFP

Jim Higgins, Galway City Heritage Officer, will meet with the conservation volunteers  and our partner group Cumann na bhFear (aka Men’s Shed) at 8pm this Thursday to review heritage work projects within the Terryland Forest Park area that could be undertaken by our members. Areas being considered include works at the Terryland Castle and the old Victorian waterworks as well as the repair of drystone walls along the Dyke Road.

The meeting will take place at Cumann an bhFear premises at Unit IB Sandy Road Business Park. All members and supporters are invited!

Establishing a Volunteer Park Rangers unit

As mentioned previously, the establishment of a volunteer Park Rangers unit to act as an almost permanent daytime presence in the Terryland Forest Park is essential if this green heritage resource is to be reclaimed by the citizens as the People’s Park and a haven for wildlife. These rangers could act as information guides, litter collectors and supervisors of tree planting activities.

Are you interested in joining up?

Greenprint for Terryland Forest Park

Click here to see the ambitious community plans for Terryland Forest Park

Help in the Clean-up of Galway city's Green Lungs!

Photograph shows illegal dumping along the banks of the Terryland River behind the Terryland Retail Park

Calling all concerned people! f you have an hour or two to spare tomorrow (Sat), please help 'Conservation Volunteers' in a clean up of the Terryland Forest Park.
Rendezvous: 11am, Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden

Sadly it is people that live amongst us that, by their littering and dumping activities, are damaging our vital urban forests that act as the 'Lungs of the City' and a vital home for our precious native wildlife. 

In the last 16months, volunteers have done much to reclaim the parks and forests for the ordinary people of Galway. 

Ambitious plans are presently being jointly developed by council officials, Conservation Volunteers and local communities to make Terryland Forest Park the 'Phoenix Park' of Galway. Details will be unveiled over the next few weeks!

Cycling Across Beautiful Rural Landscapes of the city of Galway

Every cloud has a silver lining. The sudden but inevitable demise of the building boom-based Celtic Tiger has meant that the greedy property speculators and so-called 'developers', supported by friends amongst the political and civil service hierarchy, thankfully did not have the time required to bulldoze all of the Irish countryside and cover it with tarmac and concrete! Hence there is still much to enjoy in our famed natural heritage even in the urban sprawl suburbia of Galway city.So once again, I am organising, as a joint Galway City Council/ Galway City Community Forum venture, a cycle tour of the stunning beautiful rural countryside of Galway City as part of Ireland's National Cycle Week.
Entitled 'Off the Beaten Path' it will commence at 11am sharp on Sunday June 20th from the Centra Foodstore on Bóthar na Choiste, Headford Road.

The event will be a 4 hour leisurely cycle stroll through some of the most interesting historical scenic landscapes on the east side of the city. It will I hope be a journey of discovery for many of its participants.We will ignore the hustle and bustle of housing estates, shopping centres and highways.Instead we will travel along secondary roads to enjoy the sights and sounds of an increasingly threatened but none-the-less vibrant countryside dominated by small farms and natural features such as lakes and bogs.Commencing on Bóthar na Choiste (Irish = Coach Road), I will bring participants through townlands whose ancient names reflect the respect that Irish people once had for Nature -Ballinfoile (Town of the ridge), Ballindooley (Town of the black lake), Killoughter (High Wood), Menlo (Small Lake), Coolough (Hollow at the base of the cliff)...

We will journey over hills, along botharins, past abandoned farm buildings, ruined castles, karst outcrops, bogs, lakes, dykes, turloughs and meadows.
We will stop off in Menlo to enjoy a picnic along the banks of the River Corrib.
To liven the journey up, I will recount tales of headless horsemen, ancient battles, haunted ruins, tragic drownings, lost gardens and of the great forests and the once proud wolves that once roamed the area.

Though I have ongoing battles with City Hall over a myriad of community and environmental issues, nevertheless I can only heap praise on the city officials who contributed to the success of this event, particularly Cathy Joyce.
So I hope that Galwegians will take to their bicycles on Sun June 20th and enjoy the remaining vestiges of our once glorious natural environment, with its rich native flora and fauna

'Save Our Trees' Rally for City Hall

The NGO group that I am chairperson of- the ‘Friends of the Forest’- has decided to maintain the political pressure on Galway City Council to save our local urban Forest by organising a public pro-Tree rally outside City Hall at 6.30pm on Monday October 6th while our local political representatives hold their monthly meeting inside.
We see this rally as pro-Galway City Council and pro-city. We simply want our local authority to activate its existing but dormant policies to provide outdoor leisure facilities for all ages, an annual programme of family events in all our main urban parks and the preservation of our increasingly threatened wildlife habitats. We need more plantings not less to transform barren ugly urbanscapes into picturesque leafy suburbs and tree-lined boulevards. Our wonderful natural heritage areas along the Corrib and in places such as Castlegar, Dyke road, Merlin, Menlo and Ballindooley require improved protection from built development if they are to serve for instance as outdoor classrooms for our school children. Just a few years ago the people of Galway were encouraged in their thousands to come out and plant trees to ‘green’ our city. Sadly what we now hear from the corridors of power is a bitter diatribe from one of our public representatives that he is sick of trees all across the city and even more proposals from officialdom to construct more roads through our scarce urban woodlands.

These words and actions should concern us all. Though many councillors and TDs have confirmed their support for our demands, nevertheless, we must maintain the pressure until a decision is reached on the Road and when we see the council's ecological policies being finally implemented. So we need to remind our politicians that over 10,000 people signed a petition last spring to demand an end to a new road through the Terryland Forest while requesting instead the implementation of existing council proposals that include the provision of a forestry learning centre, tree nurseries and an arts amphitheatre as well as the reinstatement of community tree ‘Plantathons’ in an effort to encourage people to regularly use our parks, reduce our carbon footprint and beautify our concrete-based city. Cutting down trees will not reduce anti-social behaviour, clean up our environment nor help solve our traffic crisis. But what could help are park wardens, a litter policy that includes a refundable charge on all drink cans and bottles and a city-wide pedestrian, cycling and public transport infrastructure.Dumping in the Terryland River that is not just an eyesore but is destroying the habitats of our wildlife

But we still have a fight on our hands. Last Sunday , City Council held a public ecological nature walk through the Forest as part of Irish Mobility Week (looking at alternatives to car transport). The Parks Staff did a great job informing the participants on biodiversity, individual native Irish trees etc. But there were only 17 people on the walk, most of whom were activists in the 'Friends of the Forest' group. For the Council made no mention of the event in the media or in any of the ample literature that was specifically published for Mobility Week!!! Nor have they tried to involved members of the multi-sectoral steering committee which has been largely ignored by City Hall over the last four years.People lined up in their thousands at our stand in Shop Street to sign the petition to save Terryland Forest Park from road development.The girl in the photo was the first person to plant a tree in the Park during the first 'Planathon' in March 2000 attended by circa 3,500 people

Image above shows location of proposed road through the Terryland Forest Park. Traffic Lights will be located across the Quincenntennial Bridge road where it mets the new road. The development will also include a major widening of the existing Dyke Road transforming it from a relatively quiet backwater road with low vehicle capacity into a heavily populated transport artery. This oldest area of the Terryland Forest Park, first planted in March 2000, with its adjoining wetland area will become nothing more than a glorified 'green' island surrounded by a busy network of roads.

Click here to view the Friends of the Forest website and find out more on Ireland's first urban Commuinty woodland.

Galway City Goes Wild!- Celebration of Urban Wildlife

Galway City's first ever celebration of its rich biodiversity under the theme of ‘Go Wild in the City!’ ended last week.
The timing could not have been more appropriate as the publication this week of the British government's economic report on the environment- the 'Stern Report'- clearly shows the catastrophe the world faces unless urgent measures are undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It warns of the climatic effects of the destruction of wildlife habitats and the possibility that over 40% of species could become extinct this century.

Galway can do its part to take on board the warnings expressed by Richard Stern and most reputable scientists. Protecting Biodiversity in our city will help save humanity itself!
Planting trees and creating urban forests will not only create habitats for wildlife but also lower greenhouse gasesThanks to some funding from Galway City Council/Galway City Development Board/Galway Education Centre and the support of dozens of unpaid volunteers from a plethora of organisations (college departments, Marine Institute, BirdWatch Galway, 'Crann', National Aquarium etc), we were able to provide a variety of opportunities for local people to appreciate for the first time the wonderful variety of plants and animals that exists inside our municipal boundaries.

A Cornucopia of Wildlife Habitats

Galway probably has probably the greatest number of wildlife habitats of any city in Ireland. We have forests, wetlands, turloughs, meadows, lakes, rivers, limestone landscapes, beaches and rockpools to name but a few. Each of these has their own unique set of species. The Week's series of lectures, plantings and nature walks allowed young and old to enjoy the wonders of the locality’s magnificent flora and fauna. Furthermore we helped people to actually increase biodiversity in the city through planting bulbs and creating home gardens thereby improving their own lives in the process.
Some of the most important public events included a talk on the 58 most significant natural habitats in the city; a major conference at the Environmental Change Institute, Galway University on how best to integrate the planning of green zones into urban development and a public lecture on how to create a wildlife-friendly garden .

Planners & Developers Fail to Turn Up!

The school events were totally booked out with 15 schools. Great! The same uptake alas could not be said about the non-school public events- much work needs to be done to ensure a higher attendance for next year's event. But at least the start has been made.
However, we were particularly disappointed with the total failure of any politician, developer, or engineer, planner or parks personnel from City Hall to attend the university Conference on 'Building a Diverse Galway'. After all, the event was organised primarily for their benefit!

...But City Hall Agree on Wildlife Action Committee..

On the positive side it was agreed at a meeting that I attended with the City Manager (Joe MacGrath) to create a joint City Hall-community committee that would lay down the framework for implementing the recommendations of the Galway City Inventory of Wildlife Habitats as adopted by City Council last May.
This new committee will comprise representatives from each of the relevant City Council departments (e.g. Planning, Roads, Parks), the Mayor (ex-officio) & an equal number from other important city stakeholders such as the National Parks & Wildlife Service, BirdWatch Galway, Western Regional Fisheries Board & An Taisce.
It will met for a limited period in order to draft a specific set of proposals to be completed & presented to City Council by Feb/March 2007
The proposals will include putting in place a ‘pilot’ management plan for a selected local biodiversity area & an 'ecological corridor' (or what the Americans call a 'Green Highways'!)

Finally it will lay down the terms & methods for an annual review or monitoring of the 58 habitats as listed in the Inventory Report